Material suggestions for sewing machine parts

[great white]

Those bars are soft (unhardened) they machine quite nicely with HSS bits. You harden these after you machine them.

How? Heat and quench? I’ve never heat hardened steel for the actual purpose of hardening.

Also, what grade of tool steel? When I look it up, seems there are 5 different grades with different properties…

 

[SLK001]

How? Heat and quench? I’ve never heat hardened steel for the actual purpose of hardening.

Also, what grade of tool steel? When I look it up, seems there are 5 different grades with different properties…

Yes, heat and quench. O1 is a good candidate for what you are doing. It quenches in oil.

 

[gi_984]

Just go to speedy metals website. Stressproof (1144) is more than strong enough. And you can get it turned and ground in exact sizes. Save you some machining time. And will look very nice.

 

[great white]

Just go to speedy metals website. Stressproof (1144) is more than strong enough. And you can get it turned and ground in exact sizes. Save you some machining time. And will look very nice.

I'm not in the USA:

and they don't have an international shipping option....USA only.

 

[Winegrower]

Is wear all that big a factor? I like 303 Stainless for machinability and no rusting. It's not hardenable, but aren't we and our friends all pretty old anyway?

 

[great white]

Is wear all that big a factor? I like 303 Stainless for machinability and no rusting. It's not hardenable, but aren't we and our friends all pretty old anyway?

I'm starting to lean that way. I'm planning to take a few spare parts and file test them to see if they're actually hardened or just chromed.....just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[gi_984]

"I'm not in the USA"
My apologies, I thought speedy metals did ship there.

Speedy Metals - Steel Round - Stressproof (1144) - Turned Ground & Polished

Stressproof Ground & Polished Steel Round Bars have a built-in high strength hardness, without the need of heat treatment. We can cut to any size to suit your needs.

www.speedymetals.com

I've used a fair bit of it. Easy to work. Some applications:
Applications for Stressproof® G&P rounds are many, including cold punched nuts, split rivets, machine and wood screws, arbors, keyed shafts, motor shafts, splined shafts, drive-shafts, armature shafts, rotary pump shafts, gusher pump shafts, oil and water pump shafts, wrist pins, pinions, piston rods, arbors, spindles, gears, sleeves, lead screws, racks, link pins, mandrels, boring bars, collets, bushings, etc.

 

[francist]

file test them to see if they're actually hardened or just chromed

When I had to straighten the main shaft on my 306K I had the dickens of a time getting that big front lobe off (forget the proper name of it just now). Anyway, I made a dog's breakfast out of where the set screw seats so thought I would just turn the end down a little and put a sleeve on. Wow, was that stuff ever hard! HSS wouldn't touch it and even carbide insert had a tough time getting through. At the time I thought it must have been case hardened but in retrospect that doesn't make good sense for a shaft that needs to be straight. Chromed might be a better explanation though, and would allow for just the one end to be done. The handwheel end, as I recall, did not appear to be hardened and responded to a file just fine. It will be interesting to hear what you find out from your tests.

-frank

 

[great white]

"I'm not in the USA"
My apologies, I thought speedy metals did ship there.

Speedy Metals - Steel Round - Stressproof (1144) - Turned Ground & Polished

Stressproof Ground & Polished Steel Round Bars have a built-in high strength hardness, without the need of heat treatment. We can cut to any size to suit your needs.

www.speedymetals.com

I've used a fair bit of it. Easy to work. Some applications:
Applications for Stressproof® G&P rounds are many, including cold punched nuts, split rivets, machine and wood screws, arbors, keyed shafts, motor shafts, splined shafts, drive-shafts, armature shafts, rotary pump shafts, gusher pump shafts, oil and water pump shafts, wrist pins, pinions, piston rods, arbors, spindles, gears, sleeves, lead screws, racks, link pins, mandrels, boring bars, collets, bushings, etc.

No worries.

It's not listed on their site but they may ship international if you asked.

But in my experience, if a Co. doesn't list international shipping, they either don't want to deal with the customs paperwork or the shipping is going to be prohibitively expensive.....